Author's Note: I've been reading fan fiction for a long, long time, but this is my first real attempt at writing anything substantial. Excepting, of course, something I wrote years ago, but that was under a different alias and should be forgotten as quickly as possible ^^. This story has been in my mind since I was in middle school. Considering I'm now a college student, it's safe to say that my Mirai tale has been percolating for a while. For that reason, it's very, very dear to me. I would love constructive criticism, but any hate comments I might get are going to be completely ignored. This is my story, my version of how things happened, and I really don't care about flames. That being said, I love reading reviews, so please, please take a moment to drop a line! Ah yes, and I ought to mention that this is, in a way, a song fic. Not inspired by a song, no, but rather a perfect complement of a song: "In His Eyes" from the musical Jekyll and Hyde. asks that authors don't post lyrics, but I encourage you to look the song up yourself! Enjoy!

PROLOGUE

She sat and watched the rain falling outside, her cheek resting on the window pane. Her hand, unbeknownst to her, was slipping out from between the pages of the novel in her lap; she would have to flip around the book again and figure out where she'd left off. It would be the third time that afternoon. There was just no concentrating.

"I still don't know if we should be up here," sighed the turquoise-haired woman sitting across the room whose brow had been permanently knitted for the past half hour as she tried to match several varieties of miniscule screws to their proper holes in the wireless radio on the table before her. "It feels like we're just asking for trouble."

The girl on the couch turned her attention from the window and brushed a few tresses of wavy ebony hair behind her ear. "Bulma, it's fine. Seriously. I haven't seen the light of day in weeks. And besides, it's rainy…they never come out in the rain…" She trailed off. That was a lie. Nonetheless, the dark-eyed girl wasn't in the mood for staying undercover today. It was spring, and in spring, you're supposed to be able to enjoy the rain. That's how the world worked, with or without two bags of bolts running around blasting the living hell out of anything that moved and some things that didn't.

"Yes you have! Your house doesn't even have a basement," Bulma replied with a wry smile. "You see it every day. Unlike yours truly, whose complexion is getting a little too pale for her own good."

"Exactly," replied the young girl with a triumphant smile. "So you should be enjoying this." And with that, her eyes went back to the thunderstorm outside, to the miniature lakes forming thanks to the complete decimation of the city's drainage system. And pavement. And any form of noticeable infrastructure. People Bulma's age got used to it after a while. As for the girl herself, she'd never known anything different.

Her mind wandering away from her work, Bulma's gaze settled on the girl across from her.

"He just left yesterday, Ada. You know we haven't exactly perfected this whole time travel thing; the return trip is almost sure to be, in this timeline, two or three days after the takeoff," Bulma explained.

Ada whipped her head around, a defensive half-glare on her face. "I wasn't even thinking about Trunks! What makes you think I was watching for him? I'm watching the rain! I told you I ha-"

"Kami, girl! Take a chill pill!" Bulma exclaimed, giggling a little. "I just assumed th-"

"Well, I'm not," Ada huffed, flipping around through her book as she tried to find her spot.

"Okay, okay." Bulma just smiled as she inserted a tiny screw into the radio. Sometimes, Ada actually did act like her mother, and it was always a little entertaining for Bulma. To watch a girl who seemed to be the child of neither her mother nor her father channel one of them…it was good for a laugh.

The phone rang suddenly, and both women jumped and screamed in unison before realizing what it was. Attempting to catch her breath, Bulma reached over and slowly picked up the receiver. "C-Capsule Corporation, Bulma speaking."

"They fixed the phone line!" exclaimed a woman on the other end, shock evident in her voice. "I can't believe it! I wasn't even going to call, but I thought I might try just in case…Wow! They actually got it working again!"

"You scared us half to death, Chi Chi!" Bulma panted. "I mean, I haven't heard the phone ring in a month…"

"Well, lucky me, huh?" Chi Chi asked. "Anyway, is Ada still there?"

"Yep. Sure is."

"Good. Can she just stay the night? The radio's just said something about the woods a half hour outside the city being on fire…they aren't sure what's behind it, but, well…" Chi Chi trailed off.

"Really?" Bulma asked, looking angrily at her own radio. "My damn thing won't even turn on. It's not like anyone's actually selling them anymore- at least I can't imagine they would- so I'm trying to get it going again. But are you sure you don't want her to just fly home after dark, like usual?"

"Well," Chi Chi began in a worried tone, "I just think it might be better if she waited until tomorrow. At least until after they figure out this fire business."

"Sure thing, Chi," replied Bulma. "Anyway, if there's a potential attack out there, I suppose Ada and I'd better get in the basement-"

"YOU'RE NOT IN THE BASEMENT? WHY NOT?" came a scream through the phone. Ada rubbed her temple. She had always wanted to measure the difference in decibels between her mother on normal volume and her mother on pissed-as-hell volume. Maybe Bulma had some sort of device that-

"It was your daughter's idea!" Bulma argued. "It's not as if you're underground, Chi Chi."

"I LIVE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! I'M SAFE!"

"Alright, alright. We're on our way."

"I STILL CAN'T BELIE-"

"Bye, Chi Chi," Bulma said, putting the receiver down and sighing in relief. She looked over at Ada. "You heard the woman. Down we go."

xxx

Some hours later, Ada, clad in a pair of Bulma's flannel pajamas, walked into Trunks' room and crawled in bed. She pulled the covers up to her chin and looked around the room as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Disconnected thoughts flew through her head. She hadn't stayed at Bulma's in forever. Would she actually be able to concentrate the next time she tried to read? Garlic potato aftertaste was still hanging on in her mouth from dinner. She would be 18 in two weeks. The pillow smelled like him, like whatever kind of shampoo he used, like his cologne.

Ada smiled. She had made a point to stay away from him after Gohan died, and she'd done so. Yet she still knew how he smelled. She rolled over. She flipped over the pillow. Same scent. Ada sighed with defeat. There didn't seem to be any escaping it.

The day they had all said goodbye to him was the first time she had actually spoken to Trunks in months. They had always exchanged casual words here and there, and Ada had still made trips to visit Bulma when he was out. But they had practically been strangers for almost five years. Looking back on it, the whole idea seemed terribly strange. They had spent their entire childhood together. They were playmates and sparring partners. They had inflicted numerous bloody noses upon one another (on accident…mostly) and had gotten into trouble (usually when Chi Chi was watching them) too many times to count. They had been inseparable best friends.

And then everything changed.

After Gohan died, they both became different people. Trunks got some kind of attitude problem that, coupled with being an adolescent boy, made him absolutely intolerable to Ada. He had been a complete jerk of a kid. She, on the other hand, became a secret sort of girl. The usually talkative, sarcastic Son Ada nearly quit eating, went to bed before the sun itself did, and did absolutely no talking unless it was to scream at her mother, whose life had completely collapsed after the death of her son.

Ada squeezed her eyes shut. She never thought about back then. She wouldn't start now. Besides, she'd spent the last five years working on pulling herself out of it. Ada was now talking almost as much as she did when she was a child. She was back to stuffing herself at mealtimes (and still managed to keep her slim but solid frame, Bulma resented). She and her mother rarely fought, though Ada attributed that to her own acquired ability to keep her mouth shut coupled with her mother's having given up on molding the girl into exactly what Chi Chi wanted her to be.

Son Ada was still nursing her wounds. She figured she always would be. Yet, she had made it thus far alive and as psychologically unscathed as was possible for a stubborn girl whose brother, her best friend, had been murdered at the most lonely, awkward stage of her life, whose father had died half a year before she was born, and whose mother was, in most regards, her own polar opposite. The thought of it all brought a melancholy smile to Ada's lips. She was a fighter in more ways than one.

xxx

Postscript: I know the prologue was slow, but I felt like, since Ada's an original character, it was needed in order for you to sort of begin to get to know her. Please R/R! There will be more soon if anyone seems to enjoy it!